Los Angeles Sexual Assault Lawyer Blog

ABC News recently reported about 20 women, former dancers of the downtown Los Angeles Club 907 club, who have filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against their former employer.

Sexual harassment in Los Angeles is, unfortunately, a fairly common thing, as women are subjected to uncomfortable work environments from male bosses and male workers and female bosses. If a worker is forced to endure this type of situation, a Beverly Hills Sexual Harassment Lawyer must be consulted immediately.

According to the news report, Club 907 closed last year. It was one of seven "hostess dancing clubs" where customers paid up to $30 an hour to spend time with a hostess. The women didn't take their clothes off, but spend time talking with and dancing for the paying customers.

A recent lawsuit a group of them filed alleges they were harassed by managers and had their pay illegally withheld. One former dancer alleges she worked a 30-hour week and was paid less than $100 per paycheck. Another hostess allegedly a manager asked her to have sex with him.

Club owners in a statement denied any wrongdoing, saying that documents will prove all dancers were lawfully paid their wages. They said the allegations of sexual harassment are false and were concocted by a former employee who had a falling out with her supervisor.

At this point, the lawsuit has just been filed, but it will be interesting to see what happens with this case. Sexual harassment can be an extremely uncomfortable situation for everyone involved.

Corporations and employers will sometimes strong-arm workers into taking harassment because of the poor economy. No one wants to be out of a job at this time, when well-paying employment is so tough to get. Actually, any employment is tough to get, so having a job is a big deal.

Despite that, no one should be subjected to and have to endure harassment at work. There must be a distinction made between sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, however. Sexual discrimination means that someone gets hired, promoted, demoted or fired based on their gender. Some examples of harassment:

• Getting an unwelcome request for a date or sex.


• Being threatened job loss if they don't perform sex acts.


• Stares, remarks or otherwise uncomfortable sexual-related situations.


• Receiving sex-themed emails or messages.


• Jokes that are offensive or sexually based.


• Touching or sexual assault.

Neither is acceptable, but harassment should be obvious to a victim or even to a co-worker. And reporting this conduct isn't grounds for discrimination, either. Consulting with an Orange County Employment Lawyer is critical if the work environment includes unlawful acts.